Sunyani, Ghana EPI Update

African children in the more rural areas are intrigued by the sight of white people. Given the opportunity, they want to touch us - in part to see whether the white will rub off! These neighborhood boys wanted their picture taken and were posing for the camera. The construction behind them is the foundation for the African Leadership conference facility in Sunyani.

Sam and I sweltered in the heat at Katoka airport until all the passengers from the KLM flight had come out of the terminal, and still the press of the waiting crowd was gone. Still, we hadn’t seen either Allen or Chuck. Finally, almost 1 ½ hours after the plane landed, Allen came out of the terminal to announce that both he and Chuck were searching for their luggage. Everything except their carry-ons had been lost in transit. In addition, I had forgotten to tell Allen that he needed a visa to enter Ghana! So, back he went to begin the lengthy process of applying for a visa, and we went to get a cool drink and wait. It took another hour, but Allen finally emerged as a legal visitor to Ghana – and in the meantime they had found his luggage. So he was set. But Chuck only had the clothes on his back and his teaching notes. In addition, he was the one carrying the study Bibles and the copies of the Westminster Confession of Faith that we intended to distribute. Fortunately, I had some clean clothes he could use, so we returned to the hotel, praying that his bags would arrive before we had to leave for upcountry. Thank the Lord; they came in on the next flight from Amsterdam. In Africa, you learn to expect delays and to be thankful for small mercies.

We set out on Monday morning for Sunyani - a regional capital some 7 hours northwest of Accra, and the site of our first conferences. It took us over an hour to get out of Accra because of the heavy traffic and road construction. But the rest of the drive was largely uneventful, and we passed through Kumasi in time for a late lunch. We stopped to visit Bishop Samuel and reminisced a bit about last August’s conference for which he was the sponsor. He is hopeful we will be able to return and teach the nearly 100 students at the Bible college he heads in Kumasi. Another couple of hours brought us to Sunyani and we settled into our quarters for the night.

We began teaching on Tuesday morning. Allen and Chuck were taken some 45 minutes out of town to a small Agape Evangelical church. About 100 leaders from this new denomination had gathered there to be instructed from the book of Romans. This was the first Romans conference taught by EPI, and by all accounts it went very well. Both men connected well with the people and the deep truths of Romans were enthusiastically embraced by those who attended. (I never get over how eager African Christians are to hear God’s Word. We Americans could learn something from our brethren here.) Sam and I drove to a venue about 10 minutes from the hotel and I began teaching on Our Covenant God. This conference was by invitation only and was designed to begin the process of training national EPI trainers. So, there were about 19 men attending, each of them a key church leader that is well-known to Sam. I began slowly, but quickly picked up the pace since I only had four days instead of the five I’d had in Nigeria.

The men in my conference each had the equivalent of 1 year of Bible college. So they had more Biblical background than did the group in Nigeria. They listened rather quietly for 2 ½ days, as I laid out the basic themes of a unified Biblical theology. There were a few questions, but mostly just quiet attention. Since so much of what I was teaching them was new to them and some of it contradicted what they had been taught before, they wanted to be sure they understood what I was saying before they asked too many questions. They weren’t rejecting the teaching, but they were carefully evaluating what I said and comparing it with what they knew of Scripture. Still, I could sense that they had not yet accepted what I was teaching. However, they all evidenced a seriousness of approach, except for one man whose lackadaisical attendance caused the organizer to ask him not to return.

Late on Thursday morning as I finished the discussion of Biblical covenants, the entire atmosphere of the conference changed. Although they had been friendly before, they became openly enthusiastic about the content and began asking application questions. They now grasped the idea of the covenants; they embraced the sovereign grace of God in salvation; they saw these things were Biblical and they were willing to follow where the Scriptures led them. What a blessing! Through the remainder of Thursday and into Friday, they were almost bubbly with excitement, eagerly anticipating each new application of these truths. What made the difference? The Holy Spirit came and gave them a new understanding of the Scriptures. The change was dramatic. Their enthusiasm was such an encouragement to me because I know many of you had been praying for these conferences. Christ’s Kingdom advances on the prayers of His people. In America, we sometimes only give lip service to that truth, but here in Africa that truth is a daily necessity. God heard your prayers and “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”

Our week in Sunyani has resulted in a growing denomination that is eager for its next EPI conference and a group of 18 key leaders who are committed to the vision of an African Reformation. God is doing something exciting, something transformative, through the teaching of His truth. Each of us is privileged to be a part of it as you pray and we teach. I hope to return to Ghana in June to continue the process of training and equipping these men. This will be in addition to a return trip to Nigeria in August and/or September for the same purpose. Meanwhile, I plan to continue mentoring these men via email, sending them information and answering questions for them.

Saturday was a rest day as we toured around Sunyani a bit and then took the afternoon to prepare for Sunday and for next week’s conference. Each of us had the blessing of sharing God’s Word in a local church on Sunday. Allen preached in an Agape Evangelical church to about 65 people, Chuck spoke at a Youth Rally for the same denomination and there were about 300 in attendance. I preached in the church of one of my “students” from the week – Jubilee Chapel International – to about 70 people. In each case the Word of God was received with joy. We thank God for these opportunities.

We are now on the home stretch of this trip. It has gone so well and so quickly that it almost seems like a dream. However, please continue to pray for us as we conduct next week’s conference in Kumasi. This will be the first EPI conference with the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and we pray it will open the door to all of the presbyteries in the country. More opportunities mean more trips. So keep praying that the Lord will provide the energy, wisdom, love and money that we will need to meet this ever-expanding schedule.

Thanks for being our partners in ministry!

Grace and peace,

Dan.

Akure, Nigeria EPI Update

I'm posting the updates from the latest trip to West Africa. I wasn't able to post them while overseas, since the internet service is generally poor. However, I'm post-dating them to the time they were written. Hope you find these interesting.

Imagine, if you can, a world in which none of the rules of the road apply. Where drivers pass on the right, use excessive speed, drive into on-coming traffic even on divided highways, pass without visibility and will brake and park on the shoulder without warning – and without brake lights. A world in which the driver is not only forced to contend with the maniacs in the other vehicles but also with logs on the roadway, immense overloaded trucks that will not give way, capricious police roadblocks, begging lepers waving makeshift flags in the median and vast fields of HUGE potholes that force him to weave from one side of the “road” to the other, just to find a route that will not swallow the car. Then punctuate this nerve-wracking experience with the constant blaring of horns, overlay it with a greasy fog of diesel smoke from the trucks and top it off with blowing dust from the Sahara that reduces visibility to ½ mile. That’s driving in Nigeria. Stress is too small a word to comprehend the experience. But this is where God has brought EPI to equip leaders. And it is a WONDERFUL blessing to be here!

I flew in the evening of Saturday, February 9 and Dr. Gideon Umukoro met me at the airport in Lagos. We shared a hotel room in the city (obviously, you don’t want to drive in the dark) and drove on Sunday to Akure – about 3-4 hours northeast. Once I was safely ensconced in a hotel with a working air conditioner, I began reviewing the first sections of Our Covenant God, the curriculum I came to teach. This was to be an experiment – a small group of men, who would be taking the first step toward becoming certified EPI national trainers. The violence in Kenya has encouraged us to move more quickly toward establishing a national training corps that will be able to continue teaching the EPI curriculum, even if teachers from the US can’t get into the country. So, I am training trainers both in Nigeria and Ghana as the first step in that process. Our Covenant God is intended to provide an introduction to Reformed covenantal theology as the foundation for all the subsequent curricula these trainers will teach.

The instruction began on Monday morning and continued until Friday afternoon. Each day, we would begin around 9:30 and I would teach and answer questions steadily until lunch at 1:30. We would resume at 2:15 and continue until 5:00. It was not an easy schedule for any of us. These 30 men were being confronted with ideas they had never considered before and I came close to losing my voice several times. The book has six chapters: The Sufficiency of Scripture, The Nature of God, The Nature of Man, Our Covenant God (the covenants through the Bible), God’s Plan of Redemption (as an outgrowth of His covenant purposes) and The Covenant Community. We were meeting in the new Servant Leadership Institute facility in Akure and, although the afternoon temperatures hovered in the low 90’s, God gave us all strength to persevere.

Words fail to describe the response of these godly leaders to the truth of God’s Word. For the first time in their lives, they were presented with a view of the Bible from beginning to end that, at many places, challenged the beliefs they have taught for years. Yet, they never faltered. They peppered me with literally hundreds of questions and searched the Scriptures to see if these things were indeed true. They were “Bereans” in the best sense and, at my encouragement, evaluated every point on the basis of God’s Word. By the time we had finished the chapter on covenants on Wednesday morning, they were convinced and they readily accepted the doctrines of grace on Wednesday and Thursday. My driver, Pastor Praise, as he was taking me back to the hotel on Wednesday, said this curriculum was “mind blowing” and he was so excited. I finished by Friday morning with some brief discussion on the church, even taking it to the point of explaining why some believers baptize their children. Again, they gulped but rode it out. I told them this should not be a point of division, but that I wanted them to understand how this is a consistent application of the covenants. Most were not convinced, but they all have a greater appreciation for the concept of covenant baptism.

As I concluded, I shared with them my vision for an African Reformation. They were SO excited! The thought of rejoining the Word and the Spirit to restore truth and power to Christ’s church filled them with hope and determination. They are ready to move forward to reform the church in Nigeria and are eagerly anticipating the next step in the training process.

We said our farewells on Friday afternoon, and I intend to follow up with them in the months to come via email. Gideon, Praise and I left early Saturday morning for Lagos – another adventure in driving. Although it had been repaired, Gideon’s car continued to overheat. Although we added water and drove with the heat on full blast, by the time we reached Lagos, it began to stall when we were delayed in traffic. Twice, through prayer, it restarted; but the third time it wouldn’t budge. My flight was scheduled to leave in less than an hour. So, Gideon flagged down a car and paid the man to take us to the airport. By God’s grace, I was able to check in and made it to the flight in time! Such events challenge my faith, for the American in me wants matters to move according to MY schedule and becomes very fretful and stressed when they don’t. Thankfully, God is patient even when I am not and He answered our prayers in His own way.

Thank you all for your prayers also. They were answered above and beyond what I could have thought or asked. The Holy Spirit was with us in each session, giving me thoughts and verses that I did not prepare and giving them teachable hearts. He gave us safe travel in both directions and has brought me to Ghana, where I will do it all again this coming week. All the glory goes to God.I have been joined here by Dr. Allen Monroe and Mr. Chuck Emerson, who will be teaching Romans this next week to a larger group.

The opportunities in West Africa are immense and your support is a vital part of this work. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to embrace these opportunities for the glory of God in the extension of Christ’s Kingdom.

Grace and peace,

Dan.

The Resurrection of the Blog

I'm not sure how many people still check this blog, since I haven't posted for quite some time. However, the blog is about to be resurrected. I'm headed for Nigeria and Ghana at the end of the week and I hope to post some email updates during the three weeks I'm there.
The explanation for my silence is really rather pedestrian: I have been very busy. At the request of Dr. Gideon Umukoro, our EPI contact in Nigeria, I have been writing an introduction to Reformed Theology for use in training national EPI trainers in Africa. During this upcoming trip, I will be training some 40-50 pastors using this introduction, which is titled Our Covenant God. The goal is to give them a theological foundation for teaching the other EPI curricula.
The potential is immense. I have often hoped and prayed for an African Reformation. We have begun to see some evidence that it is beginning to happen. I pray the Lord will use this curricula to carry that process forward.
I'll post more soon.